Since opening in February 2013, Biblioteca Yelapa has become a gathering spot and a hub of learning for students (grades 1 – 6), in the Escuela Primaria Juan de la Barrera in Yelapa, Jalisco, Mexico.
Stocked with hundreds of library-bound books in Spanish, students select and check out books daily. Each class also has weekly sessions with librarian or volunteer-led readings and other based activities.
Carefully selected by an experienced children’s librarian and teacher, our books cover a wide range of subjects that are critical to elementary school academic development and enjoyment. A broad range of age-appropriate picture books, Mexican folk tales, poetry, biographies, reference materials, easy-readers, award winning literature, and other popular subjects are available.
But, it is the time spent with these children, suggesting new books, discussing their interests in horses, birds, plants, sea-life, the natural world around them, along with structured learning activities that will allow Biblioteca Yelapa to make the biggest difference in their academic growth.
Printed books offer these children a new and tactical involvement with interesting subjects, and especially, the opportunity to select and take books home, offering students a new path (at their own speed), to learning about the complicated developing world around them.
Why is this project so important? Click here to read a New York Times Op-Ed article on literacy in Mexico – “The Country That Stopped Reading”.